Nicki Minaj's positive influence

Kylie Gillette

Professor Melissa Santos

ENGL 199-003: Women In Pop Culture

27 March, 2015

Nicki Minaj’s Influence

As we discussed hip hip over the past couple weeks, Nicki Minaj, naturally, came up in conversation. There has been a lot of criticism over Nicki Minaj both in social media, news outlets, and even in class. Many people are quick to hate on her for the way she presents herself, especially recently due to her “Anaconda” video. However, while society is quick to judge, it is much more hesitant to acknowledge the positive influence Nicki Minaj has over her fans.

Since day one of her career, Nicki has remained true to herself. Early in her career, when she was wearing eccentric outfits, colorful wigs, and putting on interesting performances (to say the least), people were very eager to judge her. People on social media would make fun of her appearance and personality in every way they could, but she didn’t seem to care. She often expressed that she was staying true to herself, and she didn’t care what anybody said about her. With a fanbase of lots of young women, that was an incredibly important message to send. Young girls aren’t often told that it’s okay to be weird, and that its okay to be themselves, and they often grow up afraid to reject societal norms. However, Nicki Minaj has always made sure that her fans know its okay to express themselves, and continues to do so today, though she has moved to new looks.

Also, Nicki is constantly telling her fans to stay in school. Nicki Minaj uses her influential power to speak about the importance of education at each of her concerts. She encourages her fans to follow their dreams, but despite what those dreams may be, she demands that they stay in school. She even uses her twitter to ask young girls, especially, to stay in school. There have been a few instances in which young girls tweeted Nicki Minaj, telling her that they were skipping school to get her new album: to which, Nicki responded with, “No you will not ma’am!” She wants her fans to get an excellent education above all else, because she doesn’t want them to grow up to be nothing. Nicki understands the importance of having fun, but as she has expressed to her fans, theres no point in having fun without the smarts to back it up with.

Nicki Minaj has also received a lot of hate for putting her clothing line in Kmart. People often joke about how bad of a store Kmart is and how Nicki shouldn't be putting her line in such a cheap place. However, she has communicated that she wants her clothes to be in Kmart for a very good reason: “I know what my fans can afford, and I’m going to continue to give them what they can afford.” Nicki Minaj understands that most of her fans don’t have too much money to spare, so she wanted to make her clothes available at low costs so her fans could be satisfied. I believe that this is incredibly considerate of her. We don’t see a lot of this concern for fan’s finances coming from artists today, so it’s really important that she does this.

Nicki Minaj is more than her butt. Often times, people are quick to judge her for her body and disregard everything else. She works hard to be a positive role model in young women’s lives and this shouldn’t go unrecognized.